Starfield Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Crispy]

When Morrowind was first announced, I was expecting to get Daggerfall, albeit on a restricted subcontinent, with much better graphics.

What I got was much better graphics, but a largely empty subcontinent. There was enough content there for me to want to complete the game, but it just always felt rushed and incomplete.

This has been Bethesda's curse ever since then: they can never strike a balance between this game looks good and this game is really engaging.

 

[Harthwain]

What I got was much better graphics, but a largely empty subcontinent. There was enough content there for me to want to complete the game, but it just always felt rushed and incomplete.

I am not surprised - when doing a giant map manually it is harder to fill it with hand-crafted content. That said, the amount of "empty" space made sense in the context of how big the world was. Gothic was the opposite: it had a much more compact world, so it didn't feel like there was any wasted space.

 

[Crispy]

I won't disagree in terms of "out in the woods"; Morrowind/Vvardenfell, considering its hostile environment, shouldn't be teeming with people. But in the major cities?

 

[quixotic]

The only major city I can think of that feels empty in Morrowind is Vivec.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Did someone say "empty space"? How about 1000 planets worth?

 

[Zariusz]

I wonder how space Mudcrabs will look.

 

[Harthwain]

I won't disagree in terms of "out in the woods"; Morrowind/Vvardenfell, considering its hostile environment, shouldn't be teeming with people. But in the major cities?

Indeed, Morrowind didn't have bustling cities in terms of crowds. I think the major reason why cities didn't feel that empty to me (although I can totally see why some people could consider them deserted) was becase buildings had people in them (traders, quest NPCs, etc.) so the "populated" locations didn't feel as empty on the inside as they did on the outside.

The only major city I can think of that feels empty in Morrowind is Vivec.

To be honest I never thought of Vivec as a city. More like a bunch of towers that were annoying to navigate.

 

[Lemming42]

The problem with Morrrowind's "emptiness" I think is that comparatively few of the people you see actually do anything or have anything to say. People rightly rag on Oblivion for having a billion named NPCs who all have one line of stupid "I am Cockius Suckius, I run the store here. Feeling hungry? They say some "food" will fix that right up" dialogue or whatever other inane shit, but Morrowind's NPC roster in big towns isn't much better.

Combined with the usual issue of NPCs being static and mostly just standing totally still 24/7 or walking aimlessly in a small area, and the world just feels hollow and generally off.

Bethesda keep replicating the same problem in a lot of their games, there's technically a lot of stuff on the screen but when you try to interact with it you find out that the NPCs have no real stories or quests to partake in, the city is an illusion, you're the only person in the world who ever does anything, etc.

 

[GhostCow]

Bethesda games have always had shit combat and I wonder why no one ever talks about that

 

[Cross]

The problem with Morrrowind's "emptiness" I think is that comparatively few of the people you see actually do anything or have anything to say. People rightly rag on Oblivion for having a billion named NPCs who all have one line of stupid "I am Cockius Suckius, I run the store here. Feeling hungry? They say some "food" will fix that right up" dialogue or whatever other inane shit, but Morrowind's NPC roster in big towns isn't much better.

Combined with the usual issue of NPCs being static and mostly just standing totally still 24/7 or walking aimlessly in a small area, and the world just feels hollow and generally off.

Bethesda keep replicating the same problem in a lot of their games, there's technically a lot of stuff on the screen but when you try to interact with it you find out that the NPCs have no real stories or quests to partake in, the city is an illusion, you're the only person in the world who ever does anything, etc.

NPC interaction in Morrowind would've been more interesting if it had used a text parser, which would've rewarded the player for deducing relevant keywords to type in. Being presented with all the keywords to click through is a poor middle ground between the flexibility of a text parser and handcrafted dialogue choices.

 

[Crispy]

I wonder how space Mudcrabs will look.

Disgusting.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

"I am Cockius Suckius, I run the store here. Feeling hungry? They say some "food" will fix that right up"

I read that in Wes Johnson's voice and cadence. Som fuud

 

[mediocrepoet]

I wonder how space Mudcrabs will look.

Disgusting creatures, I avoid them when I can.

 

[Reinhardt]

Did someone say "empty space"? How about 1000 planets worth?

now imagine this planet after two years of loverslab work.

 

[Zariusz]

Did someone say "empty space"? How about 1000 planets worth?

now imagine this planet after two years of loverslab work.

So you want to fuck this planet? I guess i could see them trying to force planet generating system to make giant titty mountains... with physics. Tbh this is not beyond those coomers.

 

[Tyrr]

"See that mountain? You can fuck it."

 

[Child of Malkav]

giant titty mountains... with physics.

Edit 1: Hehe....the terminology is interesting now: peaks are now nipples, "volcanoes" now erupt with milk and not lava, the galaxy is already named the Milky Way....a new horizon in front of us. Of course, hypothetically speaking.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Fuck y'all, you don't get my vision.

 

[leuMOX]

Can't wait to put a space bucket on someone's head.

 

[Caim]

Did someone say "empty space"? How about 1000 planets worth?

now imagine this planet after two years of loverslab work.

Like I said before: all planets on the galaxy map will have a double right next to them.

All the planets are now pairs of tits.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Daggerfall was still their most "magical" game for me. Although that might be due to novelty and the era of PC gaming at that time.

daggerfall deserved today's computing power. today's games wouldn't be worth of daggerfall's time computing power.

I wonder how space Mudcrabs will look.

yes, i'm fun at parties.
apparently, the "crab" has existed throughout the several extinction waves earth suffered, in the form of having different creatures evolving back into it. it looks like the crab is a "perfect form". so space mudcrabs would look like exactly like mudcrabs.

edit: i'm not making stuff up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Todd Howard's about to make you his bitch (suck it down)

 

[ADL]

I hope they spend time talking about the new Creation Kit during the showcase because that's what I'm really concerned about. Are they going to give modders the tools to design procgen content? Otherwise they're better off picking one planet and modding it to hell.

 

[Spectacle]

I hope they spend time talking about the new Creation Kit during the showcase because that's what I'm really concerned about. Are they going to give modders the tools to design procgen content? Otherwise they're better off picking one planet and modding it to hell.

If not I'm sure some crazy modders will start making their own planet generator, but it might be 6 years before it's ready. Just in time for Bethesda to release the Starfield: Galactic Edition.

 

[Robotigan]

The problem with Morrrowind's "emptiness" I think is that comparatively few of the people you see actually do anything or have anything to say. People rightly rag on Oblivion for having a billion named NPCs who all have one line of stupid "I am Cockius Suckius, I run the store here. Feeling hungry? They say some "food" will fix that right up" dialogue or whatever other inane shit, but Morrowind's NPC roster in big towns isn't much better.

Combined with the usual issue of NPCs being static and mostly just standing totally still 24/7 or walking aimlessly in a small area, and the world just feels hollow and generally off.

Bethesda keep replicating the same problem in a lot of their games, there's technically a lot of stuff on the screen but when you try to interact with it you find out that the NPCs have no real stories or quests to partake in, the city is an illusion, you're the only person in the world who ever does anything, etc.

Systems design is a lot harder than quest writing, and also less recognized. Quests provide clear additive value. You make a quest, it's compelling, everyone cheers, and you're budgeted 5 more quests. Whereas systems provide hidden multiplicative value. You make a system, it's lame on its own, people don't get it, and you have to fight to persuade stakeholders that it'll be really cool when combined with the other 5 systems you had planned. Then once everything's implemented, you get the interesting emergent behavior you had hoped for. In fact it's so emergent that everything breaks because of several edge cases you hadn't expected, and now you're battling deadlines as you realize everything's gonna be 5x harder than you initially thought. Or you can take the cheater's way out and disallow those insidious edge cases. Bethesda's pretty good about avoiding cheats--this is probably where "it just works" comes from, they mean you can do whatever you want without the game imposing arbitrary parameters on you--but things can be buggy and sometimes barebones as a result.